High School All-American Games Primer

With the first High School All-American game scheduled for this weekend and most of the games having their practices start next week, I thought I would start a thread to discuss our recruits and prospects to watch this coming week.

The Army All-American Bowl used to be the clear #1, that's been clouded in recent years with the ESPN All-American Bowl. I'd say this year, ESPN has officially passed the Army Bowl for the top spot.

The others aren't really close, but the Semper Fi Bowl is probably #3, the International Bowl #4 (this bowl seems to have a lot of midwest guys) and the Offense/Defense #5.

I'm really not sure if there is a point to all of these games, the bottom 3 can't be making money...nonetheless it's a free trip for high school athletes and allows them to have a little fun.

I'm interested to see if our Michigan contingent can have an affect down in Florida. I don't think we'll land Treadwell, Hunt or McQuay, but games (and weeks) like this is where you see huge swings. If we're going to land any of those 3, I'd say it would be right after that week. Hopefully Dymonte and Jake (two of our recruiters) can land Mr. Green down in San Antonio.

“True loyalty is that quality of service that grows under adversity and expands in defeat. Any street urchin can shout applause in victory, but it takes character to stand fast in defeat. One is noise — the other, loyalty.”

Thanks for compiling this info, I plan on watching 2 or 3 of the games. Maybe Morris and Treadwell will connect for a couple TD's and our other recruits will help convince him UofM is the right choice.

"Only three things can happen when you pass, and two of them are bad" -Bo Schembechler

Both still have visits, unless it's a last second thing (which would probably be good for Michigan)...I don't see anyone we're recruiting making an announcement during the game.

“True loyalty is that quality of service that grows under adversity and expands in defeat. Any street urchin can shout applause in victory, but it takes character to stand fast in defeat. One is noise — the other, loyalty.”

I actually printed this post out for myself so I can reference it during the games that I might watch. It's one thing to watch all the highlight reels that come across here from time to time, but at least for me, this is the only time I will see some of the recruits play in a game situation before they arrive in Ann Arbor. That makes this particularly useful for me - thanks for putting this together.

"Funny isn't it, how naughty dentists always make that one fatal mistake."

For the Under Armour Game we have all six U-M commits on the same team. And all four U-M commits in the Int'l Bowl are playing on Team USA. (Which, in a better world, would be called Team America and/or The World Police.)

Seems unlikely they all ten of these players got slotted on the same team in their respective games by chance. Does anyone know whether the players slotted based on their (currently non-binding) commitments in those games?

To the OP, thanks for putting this together. I don't usually watch these things but the UA game is now on my radar screen thanks to your efforts.

"Of course I care about that stuff. To the point of irrationality. It will always be Michigan first, cancer second." Jim Mandich (RIP)

The International Bowl pits USA Football's U-19 team versus an U-19 World team of all-star international players (mainly Canadians with some American Samoans and Japanese sprinkled in). Last year, the World Team actually beat Team USA (including Devin Funchess, Royce Jenkins-Stone, James Ross, & Terry Richardson).

The World Team has had some notable players in the past couple years like FSU DE Bjoern Werner and Alabama NT Jesse Williams.